Family, police ask for community’s help in finding deadly carjacking suspect

INDIANAPOLIS — Investigators believe Indianapolis’ 78^th homicide happened after an armed carjacking/robbery on the city’s Near east side. Both police and the victim’s family agree community cooperation is key to bringing justice.

The victim is identified as 46-year-old Gary Underwood, according to an IMPD report.

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Underwood’s family said they are devastated.

"This is so unreal to me," his wife, Laura Underwood wrote to WRTV.

She said the 46-year-old was a father of six girls. He is a man she describes as a big teddy bear with a big heart. She said they were friends for years and recently got married.

“I’m begging them to find out who took an innocent man’s life,” his wife, Laura Underwood, wrote to WRTV.

On Tuesday, IMPD East District officers responded to the Citgo gas station on the 1800 block of North Rural Street where they found Underwood with a gunshot wound. Underwood later died at the hospital.

“We believe that someone knows something,” IMPD Public Information Officer William Young said.

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Investigators believe the shooting happened during an armed carjacking/robbery. The suspect took Underwood’s 2008 orange-colored GMC Hummer H3 with an Indiana plate reading 680TBR.

“It’s extremely important that we take this individual off the streets, and I would consider him armed and dangerous,” Young said.

Police describe the suspect as a black male in his late teens to early 20s, with a slender build between 5 feet and 7-10 inches tall. The man was seen wearing a blue Adidas hooded sweatshirt and red and black shoes.

IMPD is using surveillance video captured by the cameras outside the gas station in the investigation.

Underwood’s family, police and neighbors are asking if someone knows something to say something. Young said recent homicide arrests are because of community cooperation.

“I think that people in our community are saying, ‘Hey, we’re tired of violence,” Young said.

Anyone with more information was urged to contact IMPD Detective Ryan Clark at 317-327-3475 or Ryan.Clark@indy.gov. Tips may also be submitted to Crime Stoppers of Central Indiana at 317-262-8477 (TIPS) or online.